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Jesus

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"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

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Yeshua, supposed son of a carpenter (or joiner) named Joseph and a young woman (possibly a virgin) named Mary, born in Nazareth (or Bethlehem) in Roman Judea, some time between 8 BC/BCE and 6 AD/CEnote Almost always listed as being born before 4 BCE, as tradition dictates he was born while King Herod I was still alive. He excelled in Torah study, became a rabbi, and began preaching in Judea aged around thirty. His message was mainly of love, peace, mercy, kindness, charity, forgiveness, and compassion (all of which were considered signs of weakness in Ancient Rome, to one degree or another). He also gave some trenchant criticisms of the religious Powers that Be on the subject of their corrupt practices, and he is said to have performed many miracles. Accused of defying Mosaic law and challenging the authority of Rome, he was sentenced to crucifixion by Roman procurator Pontius Pilatus and executed in Jerusalem around 30 AD/CE.

While Jesus' existence has been historically confirmed, there are numerous views and speculations about Jesus' nature and deeds. Jesus is probably best known as the founder of Christianity. Most Christians believe that Jesus Christ (from Christos, "anointed", from the Hebrew word Mashiach, "Messiah") is no less than the Son of God as well as being the incarnation of God on earth.note Not all Christians do, although more than one council tried to get everybody in line about it; there are still traces of Jesus either being completely divine or completely human in smaller Christian denominations; the Man Himself said He was both, according to most interpretations. Needless to say, this makes Jesus the Big Good of the Christian faith.

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Muslims acknowledge Jesus (whose name they translate as Isa) as the second-greatest prophet after Muhammad himself. However, they dismiss the idea that any human can be the Son of God or an aspect of God, but do believe that Jesus was born of a virgin mother and will someday return to Earth. They also believe that Jesus did not die on the cross, as God intervened to prevent it, carrying Jesus's physical body to Heaven. Jewish teachings vary on whether they acknowledge Jesus or not (and of course the Jewish version of the Bible— the Tanakh— doesn't include the New Testament at all), but almost all would argue that, despite any good qualities, he's not the Messiah. Gnostic teachings maintain that Jesus was a spiritual being sent to teach us how to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence, but these are considered unorthodox by most Christians. And even people who don't fit into any of the above religions may still believe Jesus Was Way Cool.

In any case, there's one more important thing to note: Christ is not Jesus' last name, but His title designating His role as Messiah and Savior. It comes from the Greek Christos, meaning "anointed", in turn a translation of Māîăḥ. This is why phrases like "The Passion of the Christ" make sense. Note that this also means that referring to Jesus as "Christ" or "Jesus Christ", rather than just "Jesus", constitutes an implied claim that Jesus was, in fact, the Messiah, and thus should be avoided when you're trying to draw a distinction between the Christian view and the "historical" secular view of Jesus. Those who wish to refer to Jesus in a secular or historical way can refer to him as simply Jesus, as he's pretty well known, or Jesus of Nazarethnote Most Jews of that era didn't have surnames in the modern sense, instead being known as "son of X" or "of Y" (with Y being their homeland), or by a nickname/epithet. if you want to be specific ("Jesús" is a fairly common male name in Spain and Latin America, and to be honest the word "Jesus" is the result of a game of interlingual telephone for "Yeshua"—a name that appears in the Old Testament, where it is translated "Joshua"note English translations of the Bible since the King James Version have relied on the Hebrew Masoretic Text for the Old Testament, while the New Testament is usually compiled from primarily Greek sources. It would not have been immediately obvious to early translators that the Greek Ἰησοῦς Iēsous and the Hebrew יְהוֹשֻׁעַ‎ Yehoshua/ישוע‎ Yeshua were the same thing, and so the distinction stuck. Spanish translators were aware, however, so there are plenty of men named "Jesús" in the Spanish Bible—and now you know why "Jesús" is a common name in Latin America: in Spanish, the Son of God happens to have been named Josh.). Yehoshua in itself is hebrew for "Jehovah salvage" or "Jehovah is salvation" which is pretty appropriate.

Works about Him:

Gustave Doré's illustrations (of The Bible, Paradise Lost, and the Paradiso) keep a pretty standardized picture of Jesus throughout, with the beard, long hair, a mostly naturalistic Holy Halo, and gestures of teaching/benediction featuring throughout his many works, even those where Jesus hasn't incarnated yet.

The Disputation of the Sacrament depicts Christ enthroned, with God the Father above him and the dove of the Holy Spirit descending into the Eucharist, communicating the doctrines of the Trinity and the Real Presence.

The Transfiguration shows Jesus surrounded by light and floating above his followers.

Outside of these books considered canonical by most churches (the Orthodox church has always been a bit iffy on Revelation), there's numerous works of apocrypha where his authority is used to affirm whatever religious or philosophical notion contained therein, primarily amongst the Gnostics.

The Qur'an. As explained above in the introduction, Jesus is considered a great prophet of Islam, second only to The Prophet Muhammad himself. His life and teachings constitute a significant part of the Qu'ran.

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